Continuing a 2011 trend of decreasing market share, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, while still leading the pack, fell to 54.39 percent of all desktop Internet users, according to market share tracker NetMarketShare.This amounts to almost a full percentage point lower for September, and Microsoft's newest offering, Internet Explorer 9, also fell three-quarters of a percentage point.

One good nugget of news for Microsoft in StatCounter's September data is when focused on desktops running Windows 7, market share numbers continue to rise -- Internet Explorer 9 hit 22.1 percent of all worldwide Windows 7 users and 30.4 percent in the U.S.

"Skipping XP support, Microsoft has been pushing Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7 as the best browsing experience on Windows 7 because of IE 9's use of hardware acceleration and its integration with the Windows 7 user interface," said StatCounter, in a press release.

Google's Chrome continues to gain momentum in the browser market, claiming an all-time-high 16.20 percent of desktop users for the month. This is up .69 percent over August, and narrows the gap between it and second-place Firefox, which finished the month with a 22.48 percent share -- a decrease of .09 percent from August.

This continues the strong-trending 2011 Google's browser has been experiencing. It has increased its overall market share by 50 percent since January -- a net gain of 8 points.

Top-10 Browsers

September Worldwide Market Share (%)

Internet Explorer 8

29.91

Firefox 6

11.41

Chrome 13

9.84

Internet Explorer 9

8.72

Internet Explorer 6

8.60

Firefox 3.6

6.22

Internet Explorer 7

6.05

Chrome 14

4.23

Safari 5.1

2.53

Safari 5.0

1.74

Stat figures curtsey of NetMarketShare

As for mobile devices, which includes smartphones and tablets, Apple's Safari mobile browser was the real winner of September, claiming 55.59 of the worldwide mobile market. This is no surprise, as Apple's combined tablet and smartphone sales continue to lead the competition

The Opera Mini mobile browser claimed a distant second place for the month with 18.92 percent, and Android's browser put up 16.03 percent from the month. Mirroring its poor mobile device sales, Microsoft's mobile Internet Explorer, found on Windows Phone 7 handhelds, only managed .45 percent of worldwide usage for September.